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The Emmigration of the Soviet Jews to Israel

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The Emmigration of the Soviet Jews to Israel Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Honors College at WKU Projects 12-1-1991 The mmiE gration of the Soviet Jews to Israel Mark Edward Crosslin Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Crosslin, Mark Edward, "The mmiE gration of the Soviet Jews to Israel" (1991). Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 58. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/58 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College Capstone Experience/ Thesis Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • I I I THI!: 8l'lIGRATIOM OF THE SOVln JEWS TO ISRAEL I I p~ ••ent"'d to the Oepart.ent of Hlstory I '0' the Unlveralty Honors Proqra. I Western Kentucky Unlversity I ~ In Partial FUlfillment of the Requirements for Graduation r with Honors In IILstory and Graduation as • a University Scholar • by I Kark £d...rd Crosslin O.,ceJlber l'J'U I ( "pproved by r r r • I Table of Contents I Paqe I List of Tables and Fiqutell .........•.... ····· ..... Ut Part Introduction , 1 • I Development and Determination of , the Je~i5h National ConscIOuSneSs 2 The TaaclI •... _..••...•.....••.•.....•. 2 • Lenin.••••••••....••••.•.•.....••.••••6 Stalin , 8 • 1953-1968 ..•......................... 10 II £_I<;r"tlon Fro•• Soviet Standpoint: • policy, Causes and Effects · .12 • The First loIa"" ·····,········12 The Second liI"v'" ..............•• ····· .15 • The Thltd 1i14Y"' .•••..••.•..•••••.••..• 18 I II The SOViet-Jewish blqrllnt........•. ········ 23 • The Early E.iqrants ······· .23 • soviet Jews Discover ~erica 24 Amerlca's Closed Door · .. 2' • IV Israeli Absorption of the soviet Jews 31 Housing 31 • Employment 32 I The Resettlement process · .. 33 I Absorption Success.s ··· ·· .35 Conclusion: The Pro~lse ········ .38 r Appendl11 .......•.........................•......... 39 Kotes ...................•....• , •....•••••.......... (4 r Bibiloqraphy......••..•...............•••...•...... S1 I I I I I Tables and Flqures Table I 1 gaaiqratlon froa the i USSR since 1968 ••••••••••••• _ ••••••••• 40 Flqure I 1 Illraell IlIIIIIlqrllltlon .•••••••. '0' ._, .••••• 41 , Sovi"t Emlqrat Ion ..............•........ 42 I , Soviet Immigration I by Profe:ssLon ••.•.....•...••..•..•..•• 43 • Soviet Immlqratlon I by Age .•...•..•..••...••...••.••.••.•• 43 I I '" I I I I "For next year 1n Jerusalem." Those words have a place I on every JewLah holiday, In every Jewish religIous I ob:servance, and are even spoken In every Jewish prayer. In the Soviet Union as In other countries, the Holy Land forms a true ba.sh fOl; the Jewll1h faith. But perhaps In the • Soviet Union, MFor neKt year In Jerusalem- La spoken with MOte anticipation than elsewhere In the world. Since 196', • ho~eland the Jews of the U.S.S.R. have been leaving their • to return to what they consider to be their real home--the t state of Israel. Pe"klnq first In 1979 with 51,000 Jews e=lqratlnq. and then with a tremendous surge In 1990 of over 200,000 e=lqratlnq, there eKlsts what one can only • term an exodus of the Jewish people from the Soviet Union. • ThIs exodus, fot seveu,l teasons, Is beneficIal fot the three major parties Involved: the Soviet UnIon, whIch Is • findinq a new way to look at those of the Jewish faith even while bestowing upon them the freedom to leave Its • confines; the Soviet-Jewl:sh emiqrants, who now have the I freedom to seek for whatever reasons a different way of I life than they have known; and the state of l:sulel. a nation founded upon the idea of betoll.!nq a homeland and I safe haven fot Jews around the world. I I 1 I 2 i i Plitt I: Development ~nd Deter.lnaeian of the Jewish Katlonal Consciousness i I Certainly the rise of the Jewish national consciousness I is a pIvotal issue when one considers an exodus of such magnitude. There are many factors to be considered when I tracIng thIs rise throuqh history. The ascendancy of a ~JewLsh Identity· appears to be very much dependent on the I treatment or, rather, the ~istleatment of the Jews as a I separllte ethnic geeup. And the cultural background and ethnic identity which kept II nation of people cemented \ together when they were, In effect, homeless Is very much enhanced when they actually acquire II land of thelt own. I ay tracing the formative factors--includlnq governmental I leq151atlon, "ocial organi%atlon, and out"ide considetatlon,,--to the pre"ent, one may plot the I developMent of a Jewi"h natlonal con"clou"ne"" and con"ider Lts im.pUcatlon". I I Throughout practlcally the entlre cour"e of hl"tory, the Jews have been con"tantly harried and maUgned. In 1127, following a precedent set flrst in fourteenth century England, then in France, and then In Spain in the sixteenth century, the Ru""ian "tate expelled the Jewish people. The ~-~- ~-~-- I I J I eauses ranged fro. the sinqular threat they posed to a growing Russian ~tlonal consciousness to the growth of I Christianity. Th1s event set the stage for centurIes of I Russian and Sovl~ anti-SemitIsm. As the Muscovite state eVOlved Into the Ruaslan Emptre, I the perceived tht~at by the Jewish people to the nationalist Identity eased somewhat. To",y were permitted • back In the coun~, but the areas In which they were i allowed to setUe were restricted. Under CathetlrH~ II, the te[ll' ~P"le of the Jewl!:!h Settlelllent~ was first used. It i 4eflned the .re.s In which the Jews could dweLL freely. Under SUbsequent rulers, the ·Pale of the Jewish I Settle.ent- contLacted or expanded to fit the particular I need of the day. ~lexander I issued the most restricted decree, statin." t::l:lat all Je.... lIlust Live in urban areas I within the bounda%ies of the old "Pale.- Towards the end of the Imperial reqlme, the controls I placed upon the Jews became much harsher. Under Alexander II and Alexander III they were the subject of a ."roup of I measures known as the Kay La..... These requlations aqain I II.ited the possible settle....nts of the Je.... to town$ and yllla."e$ wIthin the ·Pale·; they restrIcted Je.... fro. r conductlnq busInes$ on Sunday$ and ChrIstian holidays; and they outlIned a quota $y$te. for Jewish entrance to r secondary schools and universities. The quota syste. was set up because Jewish students ·were 'quick in joinin." the ranks o"f the revolutlonary workers. '."- After years of • repression, the May Laws elicited some lnterestlng ["spons"" . The fIrst reply to the constant [epresslon ~a" a ~5t eminently logical one: tn" Jewtl fled the country. In the lattet half of the nineteenth century, thell! Wete approKlmately four million Jews Ln the RussIan €mplre. 2 r.estet Eckman, founder of he Juo:1alc Resell[ch Inlltltute, "stlmat"s that by 1915 fully two mill Lon Jews had ellllgrated. 3 Although frel! emigration was "trictly forbidden, any Jew wishing to .ave west would almost certainly be granted an eXlt vis•. The second [espons" was somewhat more complicated and was not exactly 11~ltl!d to the Russian Jews. Thls wa" thl! development of various social movements, the one of paul.QUnt importance being that of 21on15ll1. J .S. Seheehtman, a leadlnq member of the Jewish Aqency and the \oIorld J"wish Conqress, points out that the f1rst meetlnq of HovflvfI! Zion (Lovers of Zion) occurred In 1664, thirteen years before the first Zionist conference In Basel.· Thus, Zlonlsll' had sOme of Its deepest roots In Ru""la. Indeed, as Schechtman aqaln not"", the majorlty of the forty settle_nts that existed In PalestLne before World war I were of Russian orI91n.- The formative tenets of Zlonlslll were quite simple: the Jews should have a national homeland once ,,-qaln; their homeland should be where the ancient state of Israel was; and eventually the world's population of Jews would live In I , I I "that nation. There we.t" sevetaL factions within the Zionist movement, but by and large thes" basic belIefs were I constant. The fact that a large pottion of the Jews in Russia I wanted to form a separate nation did not seem to overly I alarm the government; howev"" the effect of Zionism on the ordinary Russian was extreme. Zionism to the everyday I Ivan on the stleet was regarded as an insidious plot by the Jews, already the source of all problems, to take Over the I world. The first step--the militant organization of the I Jewlsh people--was already underway. The .tumors did much to Cause social unease and were often extreme enough to ~, cause .tlotlng and vicious pogroms. c Zionism, the most important responsive socIal movement, I was still only one movement. Some of the JeW$ took a very I opposite viewpoint and turned to a socIalist or Russian natlonallst Jewry as an answer to the represslon by the I TSiUS. These Jews, the most prominent of which formed a politIcal party known as the Farelnlkte, were to play an I instrumental part In the overthrow of the Tsarlst regIme. I They still believed there was hope for a viable Jewish faIth in the RussIan EmpIre, and all that was requIred to make that hope a reaiity was the soclal and polItical • change found In revolution. I with a massive wave of continuing emigration, and a social situatIon fIlled wIth ZIonist or natIonalist I organizations, the Russlan Empire headed lnto the First I , World War and .I revolution WhIch ,,",'lId chillnqe the polltical atmosphere of the natIon forever. With the overthrow of NIcholas II and the toppllnq of the ProvL$lonal Oove"tnlllent, Vladl.er Lenin, leader of the Soviets, brouqht his Ideas and 1d,,,0109Y to the Russian Jewish scene.
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